881.00/953
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Grew) of a Conversation with the French Chargé (Laboulaye)
Mr. de Laboulaye said that he had been disturbed by the various and contradictory interpretations by the press of the meaning of our note on the Tangier Zone Convention. The New York Times, for instance, had stated that we refused definitely to accede to the Convention, while other papers had taken a contrary view. Mr. de Laboulaye said that he himself was in some doubt as to the meaning of the note and it did not seem quite clear to him what we intended to do. He also thought that some of the phrases in the note were somewhat hard and he implied that he did not find it altogether satisfactory.
I told Mr. de Laboulaye that before definitely approaching the question of our adhesion to the Convention, we had first wished to consult the three governments with regard to the question of guarantees and safeguards as raised in our note. We believed that further correspondence would reveal the method by which those governments would assure us of the guarantees and safeguards which we desired and that the question of acceding to the Convention could then be approached. If these guarantees and safeguards were given us in a satisfactory manner, it was our intention to consider recommending to the Senate the suspension of our extraterritorial rights and our adhesion to the Convention with the reservation that we should not participate in the administration of the Zone. This of course implied that we should not wish to avail [Page 463] ourselves of appointing a representative to the Legislative Assembly as provided for in the Convention.
Mr. de Laboulaye said that this explanation was fully satisfactory. He thought the desired guarantees could be given by an exchange of notes (I suggested also the possibility of a protocol) so that the text of the Convention itself need not be altered. It would remain with us to decide whether we wished to avail ourselves of filling the position accorded us on the Legislative Assembly. I repeated that we did not wish to assume any obligations in connection with the administration of the Zone, but added, as I had told him before, that our spirit in the matter was one of cooperation and that we desired to place no obstacles in the way of the proposed regime so long as our interests were properly safeguarded.